Vietnamese Software Developer Outsourcing – with Hung Nguyen of Bestarion

In this week’s episode of the Outsource Accelerator Podcast, Derek speaks with Hung Nguyen, also known as Vano, the CEO of the Vietnam-based software company Bestarion. 

As one of the leaders of a company that’s been in business for a staggering 22 years, Vano has plenty to share regarding the evolution of the outsourcing market and the strength of Vietnamese talent. 

Bestarion

Vano begins by introducing Bestarion. 

“Bestarion was established in 2018, originally inherited from Larion. So basically Bestarion is a subsidiary of Larion, which was established in 2003.” 

Larion continues to operate, but Bestarion deals with matters regarding IT and BPO solutions as well. 

“We have been in business for 22 years, providing software and development services, and recently for the last six years we also provide business process outsourcing.” 

In terms of services, Bestarion does “project-based software development and other services like DevOps testing, production support, and business process outsourcing like accounting, data analytics, and data normalization services.” 

Bestarion is based in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and most of their customers come from the US and other English-speaking countries like Singapore, Australia, and European countries. 

For most of its existence, Bestarion has relied on referrals from its clients. 

This changed in 2023, when Vano said they “invested in marketing and sales [like] email marketing, SEO, professional groups, various online channels.” 

However, he found that “after two to three years doing that, we see that referrals is still the most effective way for attracting new customers.”

Vietnam’s reputation in technology 

Vano has been in business long enough to see multiple shifts in the software outsourcing world. 

In the early 2000s, he found that “there was a real need to update several systems to overcome the Y2K problems. So there was a need for outsourcing, and at that time, the need for software development is very basic.” 

Eventually they moved on from just basic software development to also be more proactive in consultations. Vano credits the skill of his Vietnamese team in this.

He’s quick to admit that “even right now, talking about outsourcing, Vietnam is not in the top three list of the US customers. [It’s] still hard for US customers to outsource to Vietnam.” 

Hence, he’s keen on promoting his country’s talent. 

“Thanks to the outsourcing needs of the 2000s, the source of Information Technology people grew. There are now quite a lot of outsourcing companies in Vietnam and a growing need for IT staff.” 

He points out that a systemic educational system has helped to supply this workforce. 

“Most of the universities in Vietnam have an Information Technology department to train the students. So every year there has been quite a large amount of graduates from the universities joining the labor force.” 

Vano emphasizes that “there are a lot of IT resources in Vietnam.” 

In Bestarion’s case, the company offers both fixed-price projects and staff augmentation for software development.  

Impact of AI in software development

Speaking on AI, Vano says that “AI is a train, and we cannot go against the train. This is a very big revolution affecting every industry, especially in software development.” 

To avoid becoming obsolete, he says that they “have a role to be level 2 on the AI maturity model.” 

What this means is that developers must attempt to go beyond what AI can do and “embed the tool in their working processes.” 

According to him, “in my vision there’s the need for developers, even now in the next five or ten years, but it requires a different skill set. So at that time the developers need to be very competent with AI.” 

Feel free to learn more about the company by visiting their website. 

If you’d like to ask us any questions, you may also reach out to [email protected].